List of Nobel laureates

U.S. President George W. Bush with the six 2003 American Nobel laureates in the Oval Office. From left to right, Dr. Roderick MacKinnon, New York City (chemistry); Dr. Anthony Leggett, Urbana, Illinois (physics); Dr. Robert Engle, New York City (economics); Dr. Alexei Abrikosov, Argonne, Illinois (physics); Dr. Peter Agre, Baltimore, Maryland (chemistry); and Dr. Paul Lauterbur, Urbana, Illinois (physiology/medicine).

The Nobel Prizes (Swedish: Nobelpriset, Norwegian: Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institute, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in the fields of chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine.^[1] They were established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, which dictates that the awards should be administered by the Nobel Foundation. Another prize, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, was established in 1968 by the Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, for contributors to the field of economics.^[2]

Each prize is awarded by a separate committee; the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awards the Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, and Economics, the Karolinska Institute awards the Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee awards the Prize in Peace.^[3] Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a monetary award that has varied throughout the years.^[2] In 1901, the winners of the first Nobel Prizes were given 150,782 SEK, which is equal to 7,731,004 SEK in December 2007. In 2008, the winners were awarded a prize amount of 10,000,000 SEK.^[4] The awards are presented in Stockholm in an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.^[5]

As of 2009, 802 individuals and 20 organizations have been awarded a Nobel Prize, including 62 winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Four Nobel laureates were not permitted by their governments to accept the Nobel Prize. Adolf Hitler forbid three Germans, Richard Kuhn (Chemistry, 1938), Adolf Butenandt (Chemistry, 1939), and Gerhard Domagk (Physiology or Medicine, 1939), from accepting their Nobel Prizes, and the government of the Soviet Union pressured Boris Pasternak (Literature, 1958) to decline his award.

Two Nobel laureates, Jean-Paul Sartre (Literature, 1964) and Lê Ðức Thọ (Peace, 1973), declined the award; Sartre declined the award as he declined all official honors, and Lê declined the award due to the situation Vietnam was in at the time. Six laureates have received more than one prize; of the six, the International Committee of the Red Cross has received the Nobel Peace Prize three times, more than any other.^[6]

Among the 809 Nobel Laureates, 35 Nobel laureates have been women; the first woman to win a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.^[7] In years in which the Nobel Prize is not awarded due to external events or a lack of nominations, the prize money is returned to the funds delegated to the relevant prize.^[8] The Nobel Prize was not awarded between 1940 and 1942 due to the outbreak of World War II.^[9]

Laureates

See also

• List of Nobel Laureates by country
• List of Nobel laureates by country per capita

Notes

• ^A In 1938 and 1939, the government of Germany did not allow three German Nobel Laureates to accept their Nobel Prizes. The three were Richard Kuhn, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1938; Adolf Butenandt, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry in 1939; and Gerhard Domagk, Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine in 1939. They were later awarded the Nobel Prize diploma and medal, but not the money.^[6]
• ^B In 1948, the Nobel Prize in Peace was not awarded. The Nobel Foundation's website suggests that it would have been awarded to Mahatma Gandhi, however, due to his assassination earlier that year, it was left unassigned in his honor.^[10]
• ^C In 1958, Russian-born Boris Pasternak, under pressure from the government of the Soviet Union, was forced to decline the Nobel Prize in Literature.^[6]
• ^D In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre refused to accept the Nobel Prize in Literature, as he had consistently refused all official honors in the past.^[6]
• ^E In 1973, Lê Ðức Thọ declined the Nobel Peace Prize. His reason was that he felt he did not deserve because although he helped negotiate the Paris Peace Accords (a cease-fire in the Vietnam War), there had been no actual peace agreement.^[6][9]

References

General

Specific

External links

• Official website of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
• Official website of the Nobel Foundation